If ever the term double-edged sword applied to a basketball career, it would fit with Utica grad Mike Hollingsworth. So far the Wayne State guard has guard has picked up a pair of championships and multiple individual honors while dealing with shoulder injuries.

Hollingsworth garnered All-GLIAC honors following his sophomore season in 2010-11. He also helped clinch the conference title with last second tip-in to give the Warriors a 73-71 win over Ferris State in the GLIAC tournament championship game.

He entered the 2011-12 season a pre-season All-American and the pre-season conference player-of-the-year. None of that came to fruition, however, as he suffered a torn labrum in the sixth game which required season ending surgery.

He worked his way back this year to help lead the Warriors to a GLIAC regular-season championship but it wasn’t without hitting some bumps along the way. Hollingsworth seemed to fall off the radar before the campaign began as he wasn’t listed on any preseason all-conference teams, much less All-America. “That put a chip on my shoulder,” Hollingsworth said. “It was time to show everyone that I was able to play at the level I was accustomed to playing. It was extra motivation.”

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The shoulder popped back out in the preseason and again during the season. While Hollingsworth was getting back to the form that made him a star as a sophomore, he had to play with more caution on both ends of the floor.

“Mike is a special talent but obviously he’s a shadow of himself,” said Wayne State coach David Greer. “We had to get him through the season and manage the season and evaluate things when it ended. Even with the bad shoulder he managed to be first team all-conference again and the leading scorer on the team. He certainly wasn’t playing the reckless style he’s known for, slashing to the basket, and he’s really a good defensive player but he was pretty much relegated to not really being active on defense because every time he injured it he’s done it defensively.”

Hollingsworth averaged 14.6 points per game this season while shooting just below 50 percent from the field. His true value became obvious when his shoulder popped out again in a game at Ferris. “There is no question in my mind that when he’s healthy there’s not a lot of basketball players I’d rather have,” Greer said. “We were undefeated in the league until the Ferris game and he gets hurt in the first half and we lose in double-overtime. He then misses four, five more games and we lose three of those. A couple of games after he came back and got his rhythm again and he was pouring in 26, 27 points. Without him we’re not even half the team because even with a bad shoulder he demands a double team and makes all our other guys better.”

While Greer acknowledges Hollingsworth might have come back a week or two early following the mid-season injury, there wasn’t any debate about that for Hollingsworth. “It felt really painful to see the team struggling,” Hollingsworth said, “I just wanted to put everything aside. We’re brothers, we’re a family. That decision was about helping my family.”

If there was anything positive about the initial injury, it was the timing. It happened early enough in the season for Hollingsworth, who is on pace to graduate, to qualify for a medical redshirt giving him one more year of eligibility. That bodes well for the Warriors because the last two seasons which he completed were punctuated with a championship banner being hung at WSU.

There will most likely be one more surgery for Hollingsworth in the off-season to try and prevent the shoulder from popping out again. If his health holds up he should finish his career as one of the top five scorers in Wayne State history. He has already made an impressive comeback but he is confident there’s even more to come. “It was definitely gratifying that I was able to somewhat get back to my level with us winning a championship and getting back on the (All-GLIAC) first team,”Hollingsworth said. “My senior year I want to prove to the country that Wayne State can be a force in the NCAA tournament. My first two tournament games haven’t gone as expected. We want to prove we can win against anyone in the country.”